Reading List: The World Without Us

I recently finished 'The World Without Us' by Alan Weisman. While not exactly what i imagined when i started reading, it definitely was captivating enough in terms of a compelling future vision of life. The nutshell is that life is for some unforeseen reason, mysteriously vanished from the earth. Or i should say, human life, that is.

:: book cover image via The World Without Us

Everything else is left to frolic and adapt to the environment that is left in our wake. Certain areas and species heal and adapt, others degenerate due to lack of human intervention, and others - well, they either degrade over millenia (plastics, nuclear materials), or await the unfortunate small mammal that stumbles upon them (underground vaults for volatile gases, nuclear waste). While painting a picture around some of the less touched spaces in the world (ancient Polish forests, for instance) and providing some real visions of deterioration (New York City devolving into nature) - what was lacking was a real picture of what this means.

My question, why write the book? Is it a plausible future to envision? Perhaps, but is it motivated by a need to teach us something. Maybe, but the conclusion, which took me totally by surprise, was a plug for population control. While a large proponent of this concept from way back college reading of the family Ehrlich, I failed to see the connection to the idea of us all being gone.

:: Photo of a flooded City of Jafaa via Naked in Nuhaka

So my summary conclusion is that for all of us to disappear would be bad - due to the instability that would create via our technologies. The other conclusion is that we must reduce the amount of people that are here, or, some portion of us (a lot) should disappear, but enough should remain to man the controls. With impending Peak Oil, global warming, and other looming catastrophes, will this rationale be the one that finally leads us to an awakening to slow down our inevitable decline... or will be laugh at the vision of new york and the world degenerating, ala 'The Day After Tommorrow'. Guess we'll find out.

Cradle to Cradle Development

The Greenbridge Development in Chapel Hill, North Carolina is on the docket for Christmas vacation, is of course, a trip to see the first Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) development in the US, created by William McDonough. The website is vague on how this meetings C2C goals, but does give some indication of the overall project goals, which i'm guessing, is to be the showcase project for MBDC and yet another certification system.


:: Photo via IndyWeek

The following quote was excerpted from the Greenbridge Development site:

"A hallmark of modern construction is the use of innovative building techniques and materials. Greenbridge takes this one step further by building with innovative GREEN TECHNOLOGY. All of the condo's most essential utilities will work in ways rarely seen in conventional housing. Heating, cooling, water, electricity will all be run by Green Technology. When green technology is incorporated into a structure, the average utility costs are decreased by 50% - according to the U.S. Department of Energy. In addition, green buildings require less maintenance and repair, and promote better health among occupants. However, green buildings don't just benefit the individual, they benefit our society at large by reducing the environmental impact of a structure."

Additionally, the site listed multiple reasons for C2C development that will be remedied with this project:

@ Buildings consume more than 35% of all energy and more than 65% of all electricity used in the United States. In NC, almost two-thirds of our electricity is produced from burning coal, which pollutes our air and water and fills our atmosphere with greenhouse gases, resulting in global
warming.

@ Each day five billion gallons of potable water is used in buildings solely to flush toilets. A typical North American commercial construction project generates 2.5 pounds of solid waste per square foot of complete floor space.

@ Conventional development transforms forests and fields from natural, biologically-diverse habitats to hardscape that is impervious and devoid of biodiversity "


:: Photo from CoolTownStudios

So how does one develop a cradle-to-cradle development versus a product? Looking at the concept of C2C, that would mean that the entire development meets the goals. Also, aside from roof terrace/ecoroof, it would interesting to see how the landscape is intertwined with the concepts. More to come, post x-mas, i'm sure...

Reading List: Center 14, On Landscape Urbanism

I just received this copy of Center 14: On Landscape Urbanism, and have yet to delve into it in great depth due to the current Integrating Habitats Competition that i've been working on.


:: Link to Center 14 via Amazon

The interesting fact of the book is its scope, ranging from some of the initial pre-landscape urbanism thinkers that have paved the way to current theory (Ian McHarg, Pierce Lewis, Anne Whiston Spirn, to name a few), along with the typical cast of characters (Corner, Waldheim, Allen, etc.) that have become synonymous with the landscape urbanism movement. The goal, aside from comprehensiveness, is to provide a summary textbook format for teaching as well. This is a great companion to the steadily increasing library for landscape urbanism reading.